To:HIS SISTER ANNA

Published:First published in 1931 In Lenin’sLetters to Relatives.

      Sent from the remand prison in St. Petersburg.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 37,

      pages85-86.Translated:The Late George H. HannaTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

January12, 1896

Igot your parcel yesterday and just before yours
somebody else brought me food of all kinds, so I have now got
quite a stock—I could, for instance, start trading in tea,
but I don’t think it would be allowed because I should
certainly win the competition with the shop here. I eat
very little bread, I try to maintain something of a diet—and
you brought such enormous quantities that I think it will
last me almost a week and get as hard as the Sunday pie at
Oblomovka.[4]

Inow have everything I need, and even more than I 

need.[1]My health is quite satisfactory. I even get my
mineral water here—it is brought to me from the chemists’
on the day I order it. I sleep about nine hours a day and
see various chapters of my future book in my sleep.

IsMother well, and all the rest of our family? Give my
regards to everyone.

Yours,V. Ulyanov

Ifyou should happen to be here at any time, please bring
me a pencil, one with the lead in a metal holder. The
ordinary pencils, made of wood, are a nuisance here—knives are
not allowed. I have to ask the warders to sharpen pencilsand they don’t do such jobs willingly and never without
procrastination.

Ishould like to get the enema in an oval box that
is[2]in the drawer of my wardrobe. This should not be
impossible, even without a letter of attorney; push 25 kopeks into
the landlady’s hand and tell her to take a cab and come here
to deliver it andget a signature for it. Unfortunately, how-
ever, this highly respected matron is as stubborn as
Korobochka.[3]At present there is no urgent need of it, so it is
not worth buying one.

[1]Someone,for instance, brought me a frock coat, waistcoat and
travelling rug. All this was immediately “dispatched” to the
storeroom as superfluous.—Lenin

[2]Perhapsit would be better to say “was”.—Lenin

[3]Acharacter from Gogol’sDead Soulswho haggled over the price
she was to receive for serfs long dead.—Ed.

[4]InGoncharov’s novelOblomovthere is a passage which speaks
of a gigantic pie that was baked on holidays; the master’s family
ate it for two days and on the third and fourth days it went to
the servant girls; the pie lived on until Friday, when one corner
of it, already hard, and without any of the filling, found its way
to Antip who crossed himself and with a loud noise set fearlessly
about the destruction of that amazing fossil....